


In Hot Water

by anotherFMAfan



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: 520 Day | Edward Elric/Roy Mustang Day, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-10-28 15:17:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10833906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anotherFMAfan/pseuds/anotherFMAfan
Summary: Clichéfic: Roy and his staff go on a hot springs trip. Largely smut.Warnings: RoyXEd (majority of sexual activity) + Havoc and Breda (observing with some participation).For RoyXEd Festa! \o/ (May 1st-20th)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The inns that appear in this fic are based largely on actual inns at Awara Onsen in Fukui Prefecture (with the exception that the fic is set in the FMA 2003 world, so no modern technology). If you're interested, a quick image search will give you a pretty good idea of what they are like.

This, Roy Mustang mused, was truly a hell of his own making, and undoubtedly deserved. A silver cloud with a pitch-black lining. A dream of the most fantastic kind, turned into a nightmare.  
  
It had started with the miraculous coincidence of several unrelated factors. Mustang had been all but told outright that he was the top candidate for another promotion in the next few years. Their department’s incentives had been piling up, unused, for years. Their office was on the wing designated for renovation over the summer. After two years with a Lt. Colonel to serve under Mustang, the majority of the backlog of frivolous paperwork had been completed, and as a direct result, Captain Hawkeye had been noticeably more relaxed of late. Alphonse Elric had recently begun seeing a young professor at his university, and tended to spend more time out of the house.  
  
It was on top of all of these unrelated factors that a conversation took place around the coffee pot one hot afternoon about a man Fullmetal had once punched in the face. He considered himself indebted to the brothers, according to them, and was just waiting for an opportunity to repay the favor. (What, exactly, had taken place in between Fullmetal punching him and the man’s standing offer of his services was unclear, but Roy would be sure to suss it out of him eventually.)  
  
Mustang had still been vaguely skeptical that the trip was really going to happen all the way through packing, riding the train, and actually arriving at their first destination. But there they were, at a beautiful and expensive-looking inn, booked entirely to themselves, having a lovely lunch while admiring the view of the garden and trying to convince Falman to unbutton the top button of his polo shirt.  
  
Afterward, they had bid a temporary farewell to Hawkeye, and walked along the stone path between buildings toward the men’s bath. It was hot, but the green foliage provided shade, and the sound of running water was so pleasant that the chatter faded away, and they walked in comfortable silence. Glancing at his companions, Roy Mustang took in their relaxed, happy countenances and thought to himself that this had been a brilliant plan, and found himself looking forward to the rest of the trip, far away from the public and the office.  
  
It was shortly thereafter that he realized he had somehow managed to overlook a glaring, major flaw in the entire concept of going on this outrageous hot springs trip with his staff:  
  
It was a hot springs trip, with his staff.  
  
His staff included Lt. Colonel Elric.  
  
It really was entirely his own fault, he mused several minutes later as he stared unseeingly at the wall of the sauna. This drastic miscalculation had all stemmed from the fact that he had spent the last few years very studiously avoiding acknowledging his more-recently-formed inner demons. Demons that were far too intent on the frustrating, fascinating, enrapturing, confounding little being known as Edward Elric.  
  
When Edward had been promoted, and he had moved him into the office and onto his staff, Roy had breathed a sigh of relief that he would be required to wear a uniform. In the summer Fullmetal tended to pay less attention than he ought to what he was wearing besides his boxers (if anything). But this was over two years ago, when the aforementioned inner demons were still only hatchlings, and Roy had little trouble convincing himself it was because walking around in only tight leather pants at work was unprofessional and socially inappropriate. Although after the change he had noticed the way the white work-shirt only half-hid his collarbones, the way his flesh and metal forearms looked with his shirtsleeves rolled up, the way the uniform pants fit cleanly around his waist and hips, overall it had still been a vast improvement. When Roy had first enlisted, he had found the uniform appealing when he saw it worn, but now his brain automatically tuned it out. It was nothing more to him than a blank slate against which one’s face was framed, universal; something he only paid attention to if it were not up to regulation. Once Fullmetal had donned the uniform, Mustang never had much occasion to see him in anything else...until today.  
  
That morning, when they had gathered to depart for their trip, he had been faced with the sight of Lt. Colonel Elric wearing civvies (and not that black getup he wore as a teenager), which had required an effort to ignore-- but he had succeeded. He had even patted himself on the back for beating back the demons so easily.  
  
But he had been a fool to think the battle was won. Roy had managed to put himself in a position to be spending time with Edward in a casual setting while he was wearing not only civvies, but _little to nothing_ for extended periods. In a situation where they were attempting to enjoy themselves, even, without the sobering barriers of work and uniform fabric between them. The demons, far from beaten, had come roaring back to the fore.  
  
And now he was stuck in a sauna with Ed, who was naked, and had chosen to place his plain white towel not over his lap but on top of his head, leaned back in a glorious sprawl that displayed his entire golden-tan and silver body.  
  
Roy found that in the course of his musings, his eyes had wandered on their own back to that heavenly sight, and wrenched them back up to the wall of the sauna. Quite naturally, Roy’s own towel was folded over his lap, legs crossed tightly in a desperate attempt to keep his raging erection unnoticeable. But every time his gaze managed to sneak back to stare at smooth skin and firm muscles, his arousal grew, and his groin pulsed more urgently with want. It was quickly becoming unbearable, but he couldn’t possibly leave the sauna before Ed— or stand, or move at all, really— without revealing the truth. They hadn't even been inside for five minutes, but it already felt an eternity.  
  
With a grunt, Edward sat up, the towel falling of his head. He stood and made his way over to the door to open it. A gust of blessed outside air blew in, cool in comparison to the sauna even at thirty degrees. Ed leaned out, butt-naked.  
  
Butt-naked really was the phrase, Roy thought as he stared at the perfection of Fullmetal’s bubble butt, marked with red lines from the wood he had been sitting on, but then quickly snapped his attention up to Ed’s face as he turned to address him.  
  
“We better get out,” Edward said, letting the door of the sauna fall closed before too much steam escaped. “We gotta get dried off and changed before that artsy-fartsy thing Kain wants to do to starts.”  
  
“It’s a traditional instrument demonstration,” Mustang said automatically, focusing very hard on keeping his eyes on Ed’s. “Go ahead, I’ll catch up.”  
  
“We’ve only got like 15 minutes,” he explained.  
  
“Just a bit more,” Roy said, making an effort to look relaxed and like he was enjoying himself.  
  
_Please go, please just go, Fullmetal._  
  
Ed looked at him skeptically. “You’re already red as a tomato,” he snorted. “C’mon.”  
  
“It’s always like this,” he replied dismissively. “It’s just my skin that makes it look like that.” At least that much was actually true, though he had already been in more than long enough for his personal taste, and the blood rushing hot through his veins and to his cock at the moment surely didn’t help any in terms of similarity to a tomato.  
  
“Whatever,” Ed said, snatching up his towel and turning to go. “If your ass is late, Vato’s gonna give you that look,” he warned, and left.  
  
Roy let out a sigh of relief and grimaced as he uncrossed his legs, cock immediately springing up to tent the towel. As humiliating as what he was about to do was, it was far, far better than the alternative. They had the hot springs to themselves, and all the others had surely already started back upstairs. Roy would be able to take care of the problem, get back to the changing room without being seen, and dispose of the towel, into which he planned to catch the only evidence, in the hamper.  
  
He wouldn’t even be late for the demonstration, because he was so turned on, this would take no time at all. Pulling aside the towel, he wrapped his hand around his cock and began pumping it fast, mind filled with the images he had just seen of that gorgeous body.  
  
He really would have no choice but to admit to and face the demons now that it had come to this. This was not late at night, alone in his bed, half-asleep, or drunk out of his mind on the couch, where he could pretend he wasn’t doing it, that he had never done it before.  
  
But he would do that later. First, this. Holy hell, it was hot, but the sauna was the only place in the outdoor bath area that had walls and was thus provided sure privacy. He would get it done and get out. Roy closed his eyes and remembered the way Fullmetal’s—  
  
The door opened.  
  
Roy’s eyes flew open and he jumped in surprise, instantly feeling a rush of mortification even before he recognized the intruder to be the exact person he had just been touching himself to the thought of.  
  
Ed seized him by the arm and yanked him bodily out of the sauna. Under the combination of being taken by surprise, lightheadedness, and the numbing shock of horror at being discovered, Roy’s legs did not catch up. Ed caught him beneath the arms with a grunt before he fell, and then pushed him upright against the wall of the inn as the door to the sauna fell shut.  
  
“You can’t do that in a sauna, you dumbass, you’re gonna pass out and cook yourself to death,” Edward growled right into his face, golden eyes bright and so incredibly _close_. “And you’ll have your dick in your hand when they find you. Not a smart way to die.”  
  
Then he abruptly vanished from in front of him.  
  
Roy blinked and looked down to find him kneeling in front of him, a position that put his protruding cock _right in his face_ , and Roy opened his mouth to say something, when reality suffered a sudden malfunction.  
  
Edward opened his mouth and put it over the swollen head of his penis, tongue sliding over the underside. Roy tried to object, but it came out incoherent as Ed took Roy’s cock deeper into his mouth. His body arched uncontrollably, head hitting the wall with a thud as it whipped back.  
  
30 seconds.  
  
It took exactly 30 seconds of Edward sucking his cock to make him come. Some part of him was vaguely aware of this because the place that Ed had thrown him up against the wall was directly under the stately wooden clock placed in the bathing area to keep guests from letting the time get away from them, and the only things his brain could process at that time was the heaven of pleasure being wreaked on his body by the object of obsession of his demons, and, distantly, the visual input of the moving hand of the clock. Then he came, and his brain ceased to be able to process anything at all for a long, sweet moment.  
  
His limbs were shaking, sparks and shivers still running over his skin, head spinning, and Edward grabbed his thighs before he could topple, keeping him up against the wall.  
  
“I told you, you moron,” he scoffed, voice carrying just a hint of a husk, and then, after ensuring Roy wouldn’t fall, stood up and just walked away, into the inn.  
  
Roy gaped after him for a moment, ran a hand down his face, panting, and then looked toward the door again.  
  
“… _What?!_ ” he demanded of no one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: It is true that many hot spring resorts don't put clocks on the walls because they want guests to enjoy themselves without worrying about the time, but some do have them.)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter; no smut this chapter.

After catching his breath enough to ensure he could walk without issue, Roy hastily retrieved his towel, rinsed off in record time, and pulled on one of the inn’s pattered robes stocked in the changing room before walking at what was only barely not a run back to the wing in which they were staying. He felt conspicuous as the sound of his sandals slapping echoed loudly down the empty corridors, but he couldn’t slow down; had to catch up with Fullmetal as fast as he could.

He slid to a hasty halt at the door of the room Fullmetal, Fuery, and Falman were sharing and tried the door. It was not locked, so he entered and closed the door behind him, but Edward was nowhere in sight. Roy was about to turn to check elsewhere when he heard the faint sound of running water, and noticed the strip of light coming from beneath the bathroom door.

Quickly shedding his sandals and stepping up barefoot onto the matted floor, he turned the handle and pulled the door open.

Edward, also clad in a robe (of a different pattern as it was a smaller size, Roy noticed), one hand on a toothbrush jammed into his mouth, visibly jumped at his sudden appearance. He stared at Roy as if he were crazy for a moment before bending to spit into the sink.

“Geez! Don’t just whip the door open like that on a guy.”

“You’re one to talk!” Roy blurted in outrage.

“I’M in the bathroom!” Ed shot back, spreading his hands.

Roy couldn’t argue that, and could feel his cheeks heat in embarrassment, but at the moment, that was not the point.

“Fullmetal what…why…what the hell is wrong with you?” he managed finally.

“What’s wrong with _me?_ ” Ed repeated, looking annoyed. “What’s wrong with _you?_ People do die from overdoin’ it in saunas, you know, even without whackin’ it inside them. That was a really stupid thing to do.”

“I’m well aware of that,” Roy said, unable to keep Ed’s eye but managing at least to keep his voice from wavering in humiliation. Oh, yes, he was very much aware of that now. Acutely aware. Excruciatingly aware.

“If you say so…” Fullmetal said, shaking his head, and turned back to the sink to rinse his mouth of toothpaste as if the conversation were over.

“Why would you do something like that?” Roy pressed.

“I told you,” Ed replied, straightening up and rinsing his toothbrush before dropping it into the holder on the sink. “To keep your stupid ass from broiling.”

“That’s one thing, what you did after that is another entirely!” he objected.

Ed glanced at him, then gave a shrug, turning back to the mirror to pull the hair-tie out of the messy bun, holding it in his teeth as he sorted the blond strands out and pulled all but his bangs to the back of his head.

“Weh, you didn’ cook to defh,” he said, and removed the tie from his mouth to secure his usual ponytail. “So….”

“Fullmetal, are you seriously going to try to pretend it didn’t happen?” Roy accused hotly.

“I thought you would _want_ to pretend it didn’t happen,” Ed said frankly, turning to face him straight on this time. “I mean, sure we’re on leave, and there’s nobody to find out, but you are my C.O. and all. Lotta big, ugly violations there. But thinking about it rationally, it’s not like I’m ever going to tell anybody, so what’s the big deal? We pretend it never happened, and it never happened.” Ed gave another nonchalant shrug, and Roy was nearly overcome with the desire to take him by the shoulders and shake him.

“ _You_ are not _rational_ , Fullmetal, none of what you are saying is even remotely rational. What reason could you possibly have for doing it in the first place?” he demanded again.

“What, you’da rather limped your sorry ass all the way back through the baths and into the inn with that huge boner?” Ed asked, a grimace of distaste on his face.

Before Roy could even decide where to start with that statement, the door to the room opened, and Roy turned to see Falman enter.

“General, Lt. Colonel, are you ready? As it’s just us, they’ve kindly offered to wait until we’re all assembled, but we have kept them waiting for eight minutes,” he said, checking the watch he was still wearing despite having changed into one of the robes himself.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Edward said firmly, and pushed past Roy and out of the bathroom.

Roy gritted his teeth as he watched him slip on his sandals and leave the room without looking back. He wanted to stop him, but he couldn’t draw the others’ attention by insisting they wait any longer. He had no choice but to follow the two out of the room. Clenching his fists, he took a deep breath and stepped into his own sandals and out into the hallway. He would have to resolve to resume the conversation-- because it absolutely was _not_ finished-- as soon as he could get Fullmetal alone again.


	3. Chapter 3

Roy Mustang walked down the hall of the inn behind Captain Hawkeye, musing defeatedly that he ought to at least look up a brief summary of the history of traditional instruments of the area. He had absorbed not even a word of the explanation he had just attended, and he’d have no excuse if someone asked. His lips twisted into a rueful smile when he realized that he had managed to create work for himself on his hard-earned vacation, and oh, what a surprise it was that the one who had caused it was The Little Lt. Colonel.

 

The one thing the demonstration should have been a chance to do was to calm himself down. He had made a mistake in confronting Fullmetal while he was still confused and upset. He would need to be calm and persistent in order to talk this out properly...but he had found calming down to any significant degree impossible.

 

As the shock and confusion had faded, a lot of other emotions had begun to surface and churn in his chest. Regret and horror and self-loathing were among them, as well as ever-present, crushing embarrassment, but a perverse thrill had also begun to swell in him, an incredible, indescribable high that came from having one of your deep, dark, morally questionable fantasies come true unexpectedly. It grew stronger the more time since the incident lapsed, to the point where he felt that his body must be being flooded with more endorphin at the moment than even when he had actually gotten off.

 

Half of him desperately wanted to get Ed alone and talk to him, try to figure out how they could possibly find their way back to normal after something like this, but the other half wanted to run and hide himself and his perversion from Ed and never be seen again. He wanted to convince himself that Ed might not know exactly why Roy had felt the need to touch himself at that particular time, but no matter how he looked at it, it seemed so transparent. How could he even hope for Fullmetal’s respect now? His trust? It seemed astounding to him now that Roy had managed to look him in the eye when they spoke in the bathroom, because half of him wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to do it again.

 

And then there were the demons, who had grown monstrous, tripled in size in less than two hours, pumping that poisonous high into his veins, and whispering things into his heart about getting Edward Elric alone for very different reasons.

 

Captain Hawkeye veered off to her own room, and Roy continued down the hallway past the doorway to Fuery, Falman, and Fullmetal’s room to the room he would share with Jean and Heymans. He closed the door behind him and kicked off his sandals, but when he stepped up into the room, he found both of the other occupants looking at him intently.

 

“Well, well, well,” drawled Havoc, stubbing out his cigarette and crossing his arms over his chest as Roy approached. He was sitting at the table with Breda, long legs sticking out from under the opposite side. “The lucky bastard himself.”

 

Roy paused, carefully not letting his facial expression change as he felt a stab of panic. There was no way Havoc could possibly—

 

“Don’t even try to tell me that wasn’t the best fucking head you’ve ever had,” he challenged. “I’ve seen the boss swallow a foot-long sandwich in two bites.”

 

_Oh, fuck._

 

“Well that and with the way that kid runs that smart-ass mouth from morning to night, his tongue’s gotta be pretty built,” snorted Breda, a lopsided smile on his face.

 

Roy’s eyes flicked past them to the sliding glass door to the balcony, but he already knew you couldn’t see into the bathing area from there. The inn would have made sure of that. Which had to mean that Havoc and Breda had still been down in the bathing area when….

 

“Quit standing there like that,” said Havoc, “like an idiot” unsaid but very much implied, and pulled on the sleeve of Roy’s robe until he complied and moved forward, taking a seat at the low table with the other two. “Yes, we could see you and no, nobody else could, quit flipping out.”

 

Although Roy did feel a wave of relief that they had ensured no one else was looking, ‘quit flipping out’ was very much not an option when he had been caught by not one, but TWO of his subordinates with his cock in the mouth of a third. This situation had just gone from _very bad_ to _unfathomably bad_.

 

“You two seem awfully unconcerned about this,” Roy commented flatly, looking from one of their smirking faces to the other.

 

“What did you expect us to say?” Havoc asked incredulously. “‘How dare you not turn down an unsolicited blowjob from someone known for deepthroating sub sandwiches while on the first vacation you’ve taken in ten years?’”

 

“But he’s....” Roy swallowed, guilt coming up thick in his throat. “Ed.” 

 

“I wouldn’t have turned him down,” said Breda bluntly, and began to open the bag of rice snacks sitting on the table.

 

Havoc was looking at Roy shrewdly, and probably understanding much more than he wanted him to, or than he had even had the chance to determine for himself yet, for fuck’s sake. He shifted uncomfortably, mind racing desperately in fruitless circles trying to determine what the hell to do about this nightmarish situation, and there was a knock at the door.

 

“Come on in,” called Breda, and Roy quickly leaned forward across the table in panic to whisper fiercely at them.

 

“You cannot tell anyone about this,” he hissed urgently. “ _Anyone._ ”

 

Breda and Havoc both looked at him with incredibly similar affronted expressions.

 

“Now that’s just rude,” said Havoc, voice flat.

 

“Don’t remember doing anything to deserve _that_...sir,” agreed Breda.

 

And Roy knew that, of course he did; these were two of his most trusted subordinates and his _friends_. They were the ones who had made sure he and Ed wouldn’t be caught in the first place. They would never let it get out.

 

“I apologize,” he ceded quietly as the others filed into the room. He was at fault, after all, and at the moment he didn’t need any more guilt for doing wrong by his subordinates. 

 

Hawkeye, the first inside, pointedly opened the balcony door to air the smoke out of the room, though whether Havoc was spared a look because they were on vacation or because it was his own room was hard to tell. Everyone congregated loosely around the table, though Breda was the only one actually using it, and seemed content to sit around and chat for the moment. Roy longed to escape out the open balcony door, and found himself wishing for the first time that he had Havoc’s affliction and the excuse to disappear it provided.

 

Finally it was time to head down to the banquet hall for dinner. It was set a bit early to ensure they had plenty of time to eat, drink, be merry, and still enjoy a good bath out in the night air afterwards. Honestly Roy wasn’t in the mood for drinking or being merry, and he would be just fine never seeing the outside bathing area ever again...but he of course would have to be just as merry as he could manage.

 

The food was to be rare feast, if their hosts were to believed, and Ed had been going on about it since the trip began. The inns of this area were famed for their fare as much as for their baths, and Ed wasn’t the only one who appeared to be looking forward to it. Roy had been, too, a few hours ago.

 

The banquet hall was even more lavishly furnished than their rooms had been. The matted floor, the walls, and the sliding doors were in the traditional style, at no expense spared. At one end of the room hung a large, ornate wall scroll, and at the other an exquisite arrangement of flowers as tall as Edward.

 

The seats were arranged on the floor in two rows facing each other, a wide area in the center for the staff to move about while bringing dishes, drinks, and the like to the guests. Roy was seated in the row opposite Edward, and the distance helped, at least. He had Riza on one side and Vato on the other, which at the moment was exactly where he wanted to be. As relaxed and friendly as the two of them were at the moment compared to their office usual, they were still far calmer than any of the others.

 

When all were seated and settled, Lt. Colonel Elric gave a toast, thanking all of them and their hosts, who bowed graciously when mentioned. Mustang should pay proper attention to it, because it certainly wasn’t every day that the Lt. Colonel pulled out all the stops on decorum, but by the time he had thought as much, it was over. They all cried “Hear, hear!” and touched glasses, and the meal began.

 

Roy tried not to let his eyes wander across to the other row any more than was natural as they worked their way through the first several dishes of the feast lain out before them. His attention was drawn, however, when both Havoc and Breda, carrying their beer mugs, stood from their seats and moved to sit at Edward’s place on either side. It was noisy enough in the hall that Roy couldn’t hear them enough to make out what was being said, and could only follow the conversation from the visual.

 

Edward smiled at Havoc and opened his mouth to speak when Breda whispered something in his other ear. The smile was replaced with an expression of sheer surprise, and he whipped his head around to face the other direction with a speed that would have seen Jean lashed right in the face with his ponytail if he hadn’t leaned back in the nick of time.

 

A feeling of the deepest foreboding filled Roy.

 

_They wouldn’t.... They wouldn’t tell him they had seen us...._

 

Jean then slung an arm around Ed’s shoulders and leaned in, a smirk on his face as he added some comment. Edward was getting redder in the face by the second as he looked between the two of them and whispered some reply.

 

Breda chuckled and gave Ed a rough head-rub, which Roy hadn’t seen him do in years, and Ed gave the standard fake objections. Looking at them acting so friendly, for a moment Roy doubted his own fears-- but then a moment later, Havoc piped back up, and all three of them laughed aloud and simultaneously turned to look directly at Roy, identical shit-eating grins spread wide across their faces.

 

Roy immediately mentally took back every word of praise for all three of the bastards that had ever crossed his mind.

 

*     *     *     *

 

It was nearly eleven by the time the banquet wrapped up and all of them filed back to their respective rooms. Roy had chosen to forgo another round in the bath for obvious reasons, but Breda and Havoc had gone, so he had the room to himself for the time being.

 

He breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed behind them, glad to finally be alone. The room seemed to buzz with silence after so long in the cacophonous banquet hall. Roy got ready to sleep in short order and slid into one of the mattresses the staff had lain out on the floor for them, that on the side closest to the balcony so the others wouldn’t have to step over him when they came in. With another deep sigh, Roy closed his eyes, infinitely grateful the day was, at last, over.

 

The moment his eyelids shut, however, the image of the head of his cock passing Ed’s lips appeared immediately in his mind. With a groan, he squeezed his eyes shut tighter and buried his head into his pillow, knowing no matter how tired he was, he wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some smut.  
> Warning: Ends in a bit of a cliffhanger.

Roy Mustang refused to lose his dignity to the point of sighing in succession. He had to pretend to be enjoying himself, after all, and considering they had been moving as a group since the day began, he’d had not a moment’s privacy from the knowing eyes and ears of the Lt. Colonel…and Havoc, and Breda.   
  
_Goddamn it._  
  
And this after he had been haunted all night by….  
  
Roy shook his head to clear that thought and picked up the little round cup of tea in front of him, forcing himself to focus on it, on extending his hand, curving his fingers around the form of it, bringing it up to his lips, and definitely not, not, _not_ on fantasies that never should have been fantasized about different fingers around a different form guided to different lips—  
  
Roy choked on his tea, lurching forward as he attempted not to spit it all over the table, and Falman thumped a hand on his back with mechanical consistency.  
  
“Are you all right, General?” Hawkeye asked, eyes curious.   
  
“Yes, yes. Just--” He coughed. “Went down the wrong way.”  
  
The tea having failed him, he instead attempted to focus—or at least pretend to long enough to get Hawkeye to stop looking at him—on the discussion Ed, Havoc, and Fuery were having. They had the hotel pamphlets spread out all over the table, and were discussing which services and areas they had yet to take advantage of, and in what order to do so.   
  
“These look nice,” said Fuery, pointing to the photographs of a series of private bathing rooms, each equipped with two large tubs that could accommodate one or two people.   
  
“Ooh, yeah!” said Ed, leaning closer. “Let’s do these next!”  
  
Without a word, Falman leaned over and lifted the receiver and turned the crank of the room phone, surely to confirm with the front desk that the private rooms were ready to be used.   
  
“You don’t want to do the rock massage thing?” complained Havoc. Roy reflected that a certain beautiful young woman on the inn staff may or may not have a good deal to do with Havoc’s sudden interest in hot stone massage.  
  
“I wanna do the rock massage thing, but let’s do this first, and that after lunch. I’m probably not going to feel like doing much besides lying around after lunch anyway,” Ed laughed.   
  
“How many of the private bathing rooms are you intending to use?” asked Falman, lowering the receiver to his shoulder for a moment.   
  
“Uh,” Ed said, looking around the room. “One for Riza and then...three for us. Four total, Vato.”  
  
Roy belatedly realized he was being included in that number, but it was too late now, and it wouldn’t change the total number of rooms required if Ed was counting it two to a room, anyway.   
  
Havoc stood and stretched, and the others followed suit.   
  
“I guess I gotta go round up Breda.”   
  
“All right, well I’ll head down first,” said Ed with a wave of his hand, and turned to leave the room. Fuery and Falman hadn't moved and, it seemed, would also be waiting for Breda. As Roy watched the door fall shut behind Ed, it suddenly dawned on him that his chance had finally appeared.   
  
He hastily got to his feet and stepped into a pair of sandals to follow Ed out. He was already to the staircase, and Roy hurried down the hall and followed him down it, finally catching up at the bottom. Ed noticed he was behind him, it would seem, because he turned back and gave a grunt of acknowledgment before continuing toward the baths.   
  
“Fullmetal.”  
  
“What?” Ed responded, but then paused in walking, and turned to look at him in annoyance. “And would you stop that already? We’re on vacation, for fuck’s sake. Since we got here you’ve been all ‘Fullmetal, Fullmetal,’ every other word,” he complained, dropping his voice to an exaggerated bass to imitate him, and resumed walking.   
  
“Lt. Colonel,” Roy tried again, following, but Ed didn’t even bother to turn this time, just gave a disgusted scoff and lolled his head to one side in a fashion that assured Roy that, even if he couldn’t see it from behind him, the move was accompanied by his most put-upon expression.  
  
“Edward,” Roy said, quickening his pace, desperate beyond caring about making little compromises, but had to bring himself up short when the man unexpectedly stopped.  
  
“Ed,” he insisted, but was smiling, looking at Roy curiously. He probably hadn’t expected him to give in. “Now what the fuck is it?”  
  
“There’s something I need to discuss with you,” he said at last. “We need to talk” was the first phrase that sprang to mind, but Roy had the feeling that if Ed knew that he wanted to talk about The Incident, he would try to worm out of it again.  
  
“Work?” Ed asked quietly, face grave, and Roy had to wonder for a moment at the enormous differences between the leather-clad teenaged terror the Fullmetal Alchemist had been and the man Lt. Colonel Elric was now.  
  
“No,” he admitted. “Not work.”   
  
Ed studied his face for a moment more, and then turned forward again as he spoke.   
  
“Then come with me to the private bath and we’ll talk in there.”   
  
“The bath?” Roy balked, watching him go, but not moving from where he stood. It required no time to think at all to recognize that being naked again in the same space as Ed would be a very bad idea, especially when Roy would be trying to preach reason and propriety…the exact two areas in which had failed him in the sauna.  
  
Ed sighed in exasperation and leaned back to snatch the sleeve of Roy’s robe in a metal hand, pulling him along.  
  
“That is what we came all the fucking way out here to do, isn’t it?”  
  
“But….”  
  
Before Roy could find another reason to object, though, Ed had found the room and opened the door, pushing him through with both hands on his back before coming in himself. As Ed slid the door closed and it shut with an ominous _clunk_ , Roy felt a strange sense of calm come over him.  
  
No room for worrying or obsessing now; it was do or die.  
  
Roy walked to the far end of the little changing room, and focused only on taking off his robe and boxers and stashing them in the basket provided. He did not let himself glance even once sideways at Ed doing the same beside him. Ed opened the door to the bathing room and Roy followed him inside.  
  
There were two faucets lined up at the mirror at the front of the room, and the two of them took their seats on the little stools and proceeded showering in companionable silence. Roy’s mind was blessedly blank, and he kept it that way deliberately, not giving himself time to lose his calm thinking about it. When he had finished washing and was ready for the bath, he dropped the little white towel over his lap and waited.  
  
When Ed finished rinsing himself off a final time and replaced the shower-head, wiping the water away from his eyes, Roy finally spoke.   
  
“Edward,” he said, still facing the fogged mirror. “We need to talk about what happened outside the sauna yesterday.”  
  
Ed smoothed his hands over his hair, squeezing the remaining water out and pulling it up onto the top of his head, where he tied it in a bun. When he had finished, he dropped his arms and finally answered.   
  
“Why are you so hung up about that?”  
  
“I think I am perfectly justified in being ‘hung up about it,’” Roy replied, unable to keep the exasperation out of his voice.   
  
“You didn’t hate it,” Ed accused, and turned to look him in the eye. “You liked it.” It was not a question, it was a statement, and Roy couldn’t have refuted it even if he wanted to, not when faced with that utter certainty in Edward’s golden eyes. Despite himself, he felt a thrill run over him and down between his legs. Oh, he had liked it, all right.  
  
When he didn’t reply, Edward frowned, studying his face.   
  
“Do you want me to _apologize?_ Is that why you keep bringing this up?”  
  
“No, Ed, _no_ ,” Roy assured him. He felt like laughing at the very idea. “If anything, I should be the one apologizing.”  
  
“Why?” Ed demanded, spreading his hands. “I’m the one who chose to do it, what the hell would _you_ have to apologize for?”  
  
“I could list them all _day_ , Fullmetal, laws, regulations, a _moral compass_ —”  
  
“None of that shit actually matters, and you know it!” Ed snapped, voice flat. “Don’t you give me that bullshit. I know you too well for that. So what the fuck is it? Why does it bother you so much if it’s obvious you got off on it?”  
  
For the life of him, Roy couldn’t find the words to answer. If Ed wouldn’t accept any of his arguments on principle, what else could he say? He was right that Roy had been less than scrupulous in the past about his choice of partners. He had taken subordinates and men to bed, and no, that hadn’t mattered. Not to Roy.   
  
But Ed was different.  
  
Edward was still watching him, waiting for an answer. Then a change came over his expression, eyebrows lifting from their frown as something seemed to dawn on him.   
  
“Now I think I’m starting to get it," Edward said. He abruptly scooted his stool toward Roy with a loud grating noise of wood on stone, putting him within arm’s reach. He then braced a hand on Roy’s knee, metal warm on his skin, and cupped Roy with the other. He gave a victorious snort as his hand discovered Roy’s half-hard cock, and gripped it through the towel. Roy gasped, his hand flying to grasp Ed's wrist.  
  
“Fullmetal!”  
  
“Cut the bullshit,” Ed said flatly, staring at him, eyes hot and unyielding. “You’ve gone and said all you had to say EXCEPT the damn point. So just shut up. I’m not listening to you any more.”   
  
“Ed….” Roy objected weakly again, but his voice hitched as Ed began to rub his cock, which was fully hard in a matter of seconds.  
  
Roy shouldn’t be letting this happen, should be stopping him, but it was impossible when all he wanted with every part of him was for Ed to keep touching him. Ed’s hand moved faster, and Roy clenched his teeth, his grip on Ed’s wrist tightening involuntarily as pleasure shivered out through him and down his limbs.   
  
Ed let go of his cock, knocked Roy’s hand off of his wrist, and pulled the towel away from Roy’s crotch, revealing his erection. He grabbed Roy’s knees with both hands, spreading them apart and sliding off of his stool to kneel directly on the floor between them.   
  
A groan escaped through Roy’s clenched teeth before he could stop it, because yes, _yes_ , wrong as it may be _this_ was what he wanted, had spent all night thinking of, hard and aching under the covers. His hands were shaking with excitement, and he balled them into fists on his thighs as Ed shifted into position between his legs.  
  
Finally Edward took Roy's erection is his left hand, pointed the tip toward his face, opened his mouth, and—  
  
Someone pounded loudly on the door to the private bath. 


End file.
